SkyWest cuts service out of Klamath Falls Airport

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- Klamath Falls Airport officials have announced that SkyWest will cut one of two daily flights from Klamath Falls to Portland starting in October.

Instead of a morning and evening flight, there will be one mid-morning flight. Twice-daily flights will continue to San Francisco.

City officials say a struggling economy in 2008 compounded the difficulties inherent to operating a small airport. Already low passenger numbers decreased, making each flight out of Klamath Falls more costly for airlines.

Now SkyWest, a regional airline that operates in cooperation with bigger carriers such as United Airlines, will try to make its Klamath Falls operation profitable, or it will leave, city officials said.

The easy solution, city officials said, is for more people to fly.

“It’s not that the community isn’t using it as much as they can, it’s that the economy isn’t allowing them to use it as much,” said Linda Tepper, airport business manager. “Those are the four to seven passengers we need to make it work for us.

“But you simply can’t counter the argument, ‘I just can’t afford to fly.’ ”

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